Daily Express
Kota Kinabalu: A clinical Sabah Sukma squad defeated Brunei Sukma team 3-0 at the Likas Stadium on Friday night.
The hosts was made to work hard for the victory though as the visiting team played a very aggressive game.
Sabah was only able to make the breakthrough at the end of the first half through a Denisi Meka header.
The team was visibly not in full fitness as they had just started their training less than a week earlier. Some of the players found it hard to handle the Brunei's team physical approach. Muhammad Mohd Safa was the main victim as he was floored several times during the game.
Credit must be given to the players as they managed to handle the pressure by adding another two goals in the second half by Eyo Mathew.
The first was a brilliant work from Maxsius Musa who danced through the entire Brunei defence before an inch perfect cut in from the byline for Eyo to have a simple task of taping in.
However, Maxsius had a big howler minutes earlier on when he missed the empty net from yards out by shooting at the side netting after receiving a defence splitting pass from Eyo.
Only 15 players were available for Sabah in the match last night as four were away with the senior team while another was with the Harimau Muda team on national duty.
Coaches Johnny Dominicus and Matsan Ahmad were generally satisfied with the boys' performance with the team yet to start in top gear.
Both agreed that it was a very good warm-up match for both teams as they are ironically placed in the same group together with Perlis and Kedah in Pahang.
